'Highly critical' vulnerabilities in VLC media player

A pair of "highly critical" vulnerabilities in the cross-platform VLC Media Player could put millions of users at risk of remote code execution attacks, according to a warning from security researchers.The issues, reported in versions 0.

A pair of "highly critical" vulnerabilities in the cross-platform VLC Media Player could put millions of users at risk of remote code execution attacks, according to a warning from security researchers.

The issues, reported in versions 0.5.0 through 0.9.5, could let hackers take complete control of compromised machines through rigged media files. VideoLAN, the open-source group that manages the VLC project, has released patches and strongly recommends that users upgrade to VLC media player 0.9.6.

Technical details:

An error in the CUE demuxer can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted CUE image file.

An error in the RealText demuxer can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow via a specially crafted RealText subtitle file.

Exploitation of this issue requires the user to explicitly open a specially crafted file. As with any media player, the standard advice is to avoid from opening files from untrusted third parties or accessing untrusted remote sites.

Thank You

By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Video Services Policy. You agree to receive updates, alerts and promotions from CBS and that CBS may share information about you with our marketing partners so that they may contact you by email or otherwise about their products or services.
You will also receive a complimentary subscription to the ZDNet's Tech Update Today and ZDNet Announcement newsletters. You may unsubscribe from these newsletters at any time.